1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein pertains to a food processing apparatus and more particularly, to a cutting blade assembly for use in food processing devices for cutting, slicing or otherwise processing foodstuffs.
2. Description of the Related Art
The benefits of herbs and other such plants for flavor enhancement of foods, and as medicaments, have long been recognized, dating back thousands of years. As a result, herbs and other such fibrous plant tissues are in widespread use today by many, inter alia manufacturers of vitamins, restaurateurs, and individual consumers.
One of the problems associated with using such fibrous materials is the amount of preparation required to uniformly cut or slice the herbs for various uses. For example, consider that Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and other ethnic restaurants use, for example, lemon grass in their cuisine. Lemon grass is an aromatic tall grass with a thick stalk and tufty root; a cluster of lemon grass can grow to three feet in length. Typically, the coarse, straw-like tops need to be trimmed so that the stalks can be thinly sliced to impart its characteristic citrus flavor. The time required to prepare this particular herb and manually chop it into uniform, cross-sections is long and costly, mainly due to a lack of workplace efficiency for a restaurant. Ultimately, this lack of efficiency affects the profit margin for the restaurant.
Motorized food processors have been used to efficiently process foodstuffs for many years. However, previous food processors equipped with various styles of cutter blades have been generally ill-suited at obtaining uniform, crisp, clean slices of fibrous foodstuffs. Rather, such foodstuffs, e.g., herbs and other fibrous plants, processed using these machines are typically pulverized or otherwise reduced to an unidentifiable mass. In some situations pulverization can cause the essential oils, and hence flavor, of the herbs to be unnecessarily released.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,277 to Seydelmann (“Seydelmann”), U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,310 to Schaeffer (“Schaeffer”), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,300 to Hicks et al., (“Hicks”) use a convex cutting edge (Seydelmann and Schaeffer), or a straight razor blade-type cutter (Hicks), used in a bowl wherein the blade substantially sweeps the inner diameter of the bowl, wedging pieces of foodstuffs between the blade and the side of the bowl and randomly cutting the food. In the context of herbs, such random cuts could lead to nonuniform pieces, or pieces so small they cannot be used for the intended purpose.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,995 to Sontheimer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,100 to Breeden employ a rotary slicing tool, having a hub with a disc-like member atop. The disc-like member has a horizontal area, which supports firm foodstuffs for slicing, and has an arcuate slot extending from the hub out to the periphery of the disc-like member. An arcuate slicing blade is mounted on the disc-like member behind the slot with its cutting edge projecting forward and elevated above the level of the horizontal area and facing forward above the slot carrying an arcuate slicing blade elevated above a horizontal area, and behind an arcuate slot, such that the slices of food pass through the slot. These inventions contemplate cutting or slicing firm foodstuffs such as for fruits, vegetables or meats, however.
Thus, none of the prior art appears to address how fibrous foodstuffs, such as, for example, scallions, chives, lemon grass and other herbs, can be presented or supported in such a way as to be repeatedly cut or sliced in a clean, crisp and uniform manner. A restaurant is therefore unable to use existing food processing machines to efficiently process many fibrous foods.
It would be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for processing fibrous materials that can provide the capability to make crisp, clean, uniform slices without pulverizing or otherwise diminishing the fibrous food material.
It would further be desirable to provide apparatus and methods for processing fibrous foodstuffs, such that the foodstuffs are not pulverized upon cutting.